[THEFEDERALIST] Last week, more Americans tuned in to watch re-runs of “Yogi Bear,” “Full House,” and “Friends” on Nick At Nite than to watch Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon’s shows on CNN.

According to cable ratings from the week of June 26-July 2, CNN’s viewership of its primetime shows was ranked significantly lower than its competitors like Fox News and MSNBC, which place first and second respectively. Clocking in at No. 10 on the list, CNN fell behind HGTV, Nick At Nite, History Channel, and ESPN — the sports network that’s been hemorrhaging viewers for months.

Look, I didn't expect Donald Trump to win. I think most of my colleagues didn't, so we didn't expect to be in this situation.

According to Toomey, the Senate Republicans did not expect Trump to win, therefore they did not prepare before the election how to repeal Obamacare. This means that Toomey and his fellow Republicans were not honest when they promised to repeal Obamacare during the Obama administration. The House and Senate voted to repeal Obamacare, but it was an empty gesture with Obama as president ready to veto it. Worse, it was an empty gesture because the Toomey Republicans were not serious. Simply stated, they promised to repeal but did not prepare to repeal because they did not believe that Trump would win.

This is an incredible admission. Why have the Toomey Republicans been unable since the November election that Trump won, to their surprise, to unite to repeal Obamacare? What have these Republicans been doing since the November election?

#7
They've had decades of Democrats talking about Healthcare and don't even have an alternate plan? Here is a plan:

(1) Repeal Obamacare
(2) Remove any barriers to getting insurance from other states
(3) Anyone with pre-existing conditions that cannot get healthcare can get Medicare no matter what their age.
(4) Fix it so Hospitals can shift non-emergency patients (mostly illegals) out of the emergency room and into urgent care without legal liability and allow patients without insurance to pay in cash.
(5) Streamline the bureaucracy of Medicare and audit and prosecute abuses.

[DAWN] America's diplomats are struggling to figure out what mission the Trump administration expects them to carry out, and they see the importance of their jobs waning as President Donald Trump seeks drastic cuts to the budgets of the State Department and US Agency for International Development (USAID).

The results of a survey commissioned by the State Department found a high level of confusion and demoralisation among the ranks of career diplomats and civil servants, who expressed concerns about their futures as well as the trajectory of American foreign policy. The survey results were released to State Department and USAID employees Wednesday in a 110-page report that was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. A copy of the report was obtained by The Associated Press shortly after it was distributed to employees.

The survey, conducted by a private consulting firm, was ordered in late April by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobil CEO. Tillerson was brought into Trump's administration in part due to his experience running a massive organisation, and given a mission to reorganise the State Department.

Tillerson has largely accepted the administration's plans to slash diplomatic and development funding, although he faces intense bipartisan opposition in Congress, which will likely reverse at least some of his proposed 31 per cent cut in funding. Such funds account for a little more than 1pc of the federal budget.

In addition to grave unease about the future, many of the 35,000 employees who responded to the survey complained about management culture, working conditions, uncertain performance goals and technological shortcomings that pre-date the Trump administration.

#3
In addition to grave unease about the future, many of the 35,000 employees who responded to the survey complained about management culture, working conditions, uncertain performance goals and technological shortcomings that pre-date the Trump administration.

Same gummit employee 'bitching and moaning' to be found in any bloated gov't agency no doubt.

#4
I have a front row seat to these ninnies clutching their pearls. Here's the deal: SecState is doing a 360 review of the DOS and examining ways to increase efficiencies and cut cost. There is a DOS-wide hiring freeze and that will continue until the re-org is finalized and implemented hopefully by end of 2017. The complainers are life long bureau/demo-crats who are worried the gravy train (aka welfare w/dignity) is coming to an end. The ONLY personnel cuts mentioned was a 3% (2,300 pax) reduction through attrition and early pension buyouts. You know what your job is - I certainly do. It doesn't change when a new President is elected. Get over it and get back to work.

These State Department jerks, many for the first time in their lives, are feeling the pain of rightsizing. The same pain they gleefully inflicted on the rest of us with their destructive globalist schemes. It warms the cockles of my heart to know they're torn up about it.

#8
You know what your job is - I certainly do. It doesn't change when a new President is elected. Get over it and get back to work.

But six months ago they were organizing PRIDE celebrations, supporting the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, and "assisting democracy efforts" in local elections, none of which seem wanted now, though they are so much more interesting than stamping passports and seriously investigating visa applicants for jihadi and other connections.

[WASHINGTONTIMES] Sixty-four Republican politicians sent a letter Friday asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reaffirm the constitutional prohibition against religious tests for public office.

Led by Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina and Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, the memo is a response to questions raised by Sen. Bernie Sanders...The only openly Socialist member of the U.S. Senate. Sanders was Representative-for-Life from Vermont until moving to the Senate for the rest of his life in 2006, assuming the seat vacated by Jim Jeffords..., Vermont Independent, at a hearing last month to confirm one of President Trump’s nominees to the Office of Management and Budget.

"While there is continuous debate about the scope and meaning of the religion clauses in the First Amendment," the letter reads, "the text of Article VI has been clear: no religious test shall ever (emphasis added) be required as a qualification to any public office or public trust under the United States."

"Yet, questions were asked during a recent Senate Budget Committee hearing about an executive branch nominee’s adherence to the Christian faith," the letter continues, "suggesting that such beliefs disqualified the nominee from service."

At the hearing, Mr. Sanders took issue with an article written in 2016 by Russell Vought, a devout Christian who was nominated by Mr. Trump to be deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.

In a blog for The Resurgent, Mr. Vought wrote that Moslems "do not simply have a deficient theology. They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ, his Son, and they stand condemned."

[BREITBART] On the Fourth of July of all days, “Never Trump” New York Times columnist Bret Stephens said President Donald Trump’s supporters are “idiots” who need to “admire” elites.

The Times’ and MSNBC’s insufferably smug and out-of-touch useful idiot said Warren Buffett has a wonderful line: “First come the innovators, then come the imitators, and then come the idiots.”

“I think the conservative movement has traced a similar trajectory,” he said on MSNBC, adding that “the party of Donald Trump” is associated with “exclusion, fear, and bigotry.”

Stephens whined that conservatives “demonize” and do not “admire” elites who are “educated” and care about things like “culture” and the “cultivation of the human soul.”

He's a perfect fit for the New York Times.

Stephens was recently mocked as an elitist poseur when he actually wrote a column about permanently signing off Twitter only to reveal that his assistant would be monitoring his Twitter feed. “Never Trumpers” like Stephens write for their fellow media elitists (their core base), so of course Stephens is not really signing off since he would risk giving up some of the spotlight that is put on him whenever he bashes Trump and his supporters.

“This is the column in which I formally forswear Twitter for good. I’ll keep my Twitter handle, and hopefully my followers, but an editorial assistant will manage the account from now on,” he wrote without any sense of self-awareness. “I’ll intercede only to say nice things about the writing I admire, the people I like and the music I love.”

On MSNBC, Stephens also whined that George Will, who was on the wrong side of the Reagan Revolution and is now an MSNBC contributor, is no longer viewed as the “godfather” of conservative punditry. Stephens then continued to embrace policies his former employer, the Wall Street Journal, blindly supported like unfettered “free trade” and open borders.

#3
“the party of Donald Trump” is associated with “exclusion, fear, and bigotry.”

Every single person who voted for Obama and Clinton voted for someone who publicly stated that Christians, gun owners, and people who believe in limited government, free enterprise, and intact national borders are untermensch.

Illinois has been in a budgetary showdown to address a $6.2 billion deficit, as well as nearly $15 billion in unpaid bills and hundreds of billions of dollars in unfunded retirement benefits for state workers.

Rauner had pushed lawmakers to close the deficit by reforming workers compensation and consolidating local governments, while also capping local property taxes. Democrats, who control the state Senate and House of Representatives, along with 16 Republican state representatives, rejected those measures and instead approved hiking income taxes from 3.75 percent to 4.95 percent and corporate taxes from 5.25 percent to 7 percent on Sunday night. Rauner vetoed the bill on Tuesday.

[NYPOST] Mayor de Blasio on Thursday skipped an NYPD swearing-in ceremony made somber by this week’s assassination of a cop — then hours later revealed he was busy preparing to jet off on a surprise trip to join leftist protesters at the G-20 summit in Germany.

Hizzoner’s overseas jaunt was kept under wraps until just 90 minutes before he took off from Newark Airport. A last-minute announcement said he “will attend several events surrounding the G-20 Summit, including Saturday’s Hamburg Zeigt Haltung rally.”

Rocketing down the Road to Perdition
[LegalInsurrection] The Illinois House voted to override Republican Governor Bruce Rauner’s veto of the income tax hike and budget bill. This is the first budget Illinois has passed in two years.

The House voted 71-42, which is the bare minimum House Speaker Mike Madigan needed, after a security incident delayed the vote for two hours.

The House passed the tax hike and budget bill on Sunday with 72 votes, including 15 Republicans. A few flip flopped, according to The Chicago Tribune:

On Thursday, there were some slight changes. One lawmaker who previously voted for the income tax hike on Sunday, Republican Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer of Downstate Jacksonville, voted against the override. Democratic Rep. Sue Scherer of Decatur had voted against the tax hike on Sunday but voted in favor of the override Thursday. In addition, Rep. Robert Pritchard of Hinckely voted for the tax hike Sunday but was absent Thursday.

The Republicans lacked five representatives with excused absences. One of those voted yes for the bill on Sunday.

Rauner lashed out at the bill on Wednesday as he went around Springfield to try to change the minds of those who voted for the bill. From ABC7:Complete story at the link

[FREEBEACON] Anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour said that resisting President Donald Trump is a "form of jihad" at the Islamic Society of North America's 54th annual convention on Saturday.

Sarsour, who has vocally expressed sympathy towards terrorists, was the keynote speaker at a community service recognition luncheon during the convention.

"I hope that when we stand up to those who oppress our communities, that Allah accepts from us that as a form of jihad," Sarsour said of Trump's administration.

"We are struggling against tyrants and rulers not only abroad in the Middle East or on the other side of the world, but here in these United States of America. Where you have fascists and white supremacists and Islamophobes reining in the White House," Sarsour said.

A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.